Welsh School of Architecture staff

Lara Hopkinson

BEST ESDGC Manager

Research Interests

My research interests include environmental attitudes and issues within industry, particularly looking at Environmental Management Systems and the ways these can be implemented and incorporated into management structures. Following from this, how Environmental Management Systems can be further developed into Sustainability Management Systems within industry. I also have strong research interests surrounding sustainability in the construction industry on a wide scale, with particular interests in waste related issues. I also have been involved in work investigating the barriers to incorporating environmental improvements within commercial lease structures. More recently, I have developed my interests further to the development of training for the Built Environment sector to incorporate sustainability within the professions. My current work is investigating the use of the Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC) agenda, and its incorporation into training for both professionals and within curricula within Higher Education Institutions.

Research and other activities

Since joining the School, I have undertaken a wide range of activities, including research, project management and teaching. My research activities were initially focussed on the development of phased Environmental Management Systems, and their efficacy within Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). Following from this, I led an environmental training project, providing businesses within Cardiff with bespoke environmental training courses (certified by the University). My own strong personal research interests into the construction waste agenda led to the management of 2 phases of a Technology Transfer Network, aiming to integrate the construction industry with Higher Education Institutions. This work involved making both construction professionals aware of research outputs that would help to drive sustainability within the industry, and also the needs of the construction industry regarding research to the Higher Education Institutions.

I have considerable project management experience, including management of various ERDF and A4B funded projects, and more recently the WEST project (from Sept 2011 – March 13) as part of the LCRI CEP.

I have also developed a great interest into the teaching of sustainability, with particular reference to the teaching of professionals within the Built Environment sector.

My current role will investigate how the ESDGC agenda is incorporated within HEIs in Wales and the UK (and wider), to make recommendations on how to ensure integration of the agenda within the training courses procured by the BEST programme. In addition, I will also be investigating how existing courses could be amended (and making appropriate recommendations) to further incorporate sustainability issues within the current curriculum.

I am also a member of the Cardiff University Environmental Management System Steering Group, the Welsh group of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (WEAUC), the Welsh Steering Group for the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), and I also represent Cardiff University within the ESDGC Network meetings.

Teaching Profile

I have been module leader (academic year 2012/13) for Earth & Society (a core module for all WSA MSc courses, teaching the principal concepts of sustainability and the values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin them). I also contribute to the Sustainable Building module, and supervise MSc dissertations relating to sustainable construction, sustainability within the construction industry, Environmental Management Systems and sustainability within the tourism sector.